Through the forests
he said ingenuously, no one would look for contraband, and
whence he was now extracting them to the great disorder of
what was left of my wardrobe. I left him, therefore, sur-
rounded by chaos and protesting, while I walked away. As
she saw me go, the old woman of the tent also protested.
The police, she said, had not paid for my chicken, nor would
ever do so. I handed over fourpence, the regular price, feeliag
like a guest no longer, but an intruder.
The Forests of A/tab
I set off at two-thirty, and walked for an hour along a
delightful path that kept by ups and downs through open
fields and glades on the higher level of the valley, where the
sharp spires of Walantar run down in foothills. The valley
bottom, with the stream and the main path from the Milleh
Penjeh, lay all in sight below. A yellow domed tomb and
the ploughed stubble-land was all the sign of humanity about,
for there are no tents between the mills of Garau and the first
Aftab camps, about six hours away. The upper part of the
valley gradually clothed itself in a thick garment of oak trees,
fair-sized and dappled with sunlight, and the low pass rose
under them to a gende skyline ahead. The silence and
solitude lay pleasantly around in a delightful peace.
Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human
spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our
codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or a penance, but
hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to
ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half
our domestic troubles. The fear of an unbroken tete-a-t$te
for the rest of his life should, you would think, prevent
any man from getting married. (Women are not so much
affected, since they can usually be alone in their houses for
most of the day if they wish.) Modern education ignores the